Women of Myth
by etariel
Summary: These are the tales of Cassandra and Helen, Famous women from Greek Myth. These are their stories.
1. Cassandra

This is one of two Greek Myth short stories I wrote. I am after all THE Greek Myth fanatic so it came to me that it might be fun to write a short story about it. So this is about Cassandra...

* * *

I guess I could tell you who I am, I am Cassandra, a doomed prophetess. Forgotten long ago but my memory lives on.

I guess I realised I made a mistake when I finally saw that my gift was double edged. It is wonderful to see things before they happen, to know all and leave behind the life that was unpredictable day to day. Then there came the problem. It was wonderful to leave behind the frail mortal view, to see the big picture and yet no one ever believed me.

My own parents even told me I was crazy and locked me up. I knew being favoured by a god would be nice, but why oh why did I have to make him angry? I guess I shouldn't have told him so rudely that I didn't want to marry him.

Of course enough about my problems, my family is in an even bigger one. All thanks to Paris, my stupid brother's fault. He doesn't even deserve the title of prince. Truthfully he should have been killed, but my mother and father succumbing to weakness let a threat to their kingdom exist.

Instead he was left on a mountain top and later returned to our father's kingdom. He has been influential and smart in many ways, but foolhardy all the same. Too many gods have interfered in his life and in mine, almost makes it seem as if our family should be avoided at all costs?

He judged between the three goddesses, I will give him credit for that. The Apple of Discord was in his hands. However I think he should not have answered, even Zeus, King of the Gods was smart enough to not answer. Instead he was bribed and Aphrodite, Goddess of Love offered a prize that should never have been offered: A woman as beautiful as her, but already married. Helen of Sparta.

Many had sworn an oath to protect her and soon there was a Greek invasion against our beautiful and unbreakable city of Troy. The foresight itself told me it would break. We had so many chances along the way to have rid ourselves of this fate and yet now we have the storm howling outside of us. Too late for us to do anything but seek shelter.

I taught my twin brother Helenus all that I knew, he could foresee the future as clearly as I and he didn't have such a double edged gift. Still for some reason he with held many things from our family that could have aided us in winning.

There were so many things we could have done, we could have killed Paris just as the Oracle had told us. We could have won if we had better protected the Palladium and not lost the Goddess Athena's favour. If only I could have been believed, maybe then the Trojan Horse would not have entered my home. Maybe I could have avoided such a sad fate.

Nine Years the War waged and so many things could have prevented it! I could still have had my home! Yet my twin brother betrayed us! All for the sake that he lost! He could have prevented the bitterness in my life and yet somehow he is the cause of it.

It is almost funny, none of this is my fault. The blame lies heavily on my family though. On Paris; On Helenus, the last of my brothers still alive; That fateful day when the war was won. Ajax the Lesser then pursued me to the altar of Athena, would that he were punished for his crimes. There was I forced by him, until I was awarded like some prize to Agamemnon.

If only I could have been believed, possibly I could have changed such an outcome. Agamemnon didn't believe me, I told him his wife would kill him causing the sad tale of the House Atreus, almost as sad as the Fall of Troy.

There too was I murdered and yet none sought revenge for my poor spirit. I have been beyond and seen many things, it hurts to be unbelieved. Now you have heard the sad tale of Cassandra, daughter of King Priam of Troy, sister of Paris, twin sister of the betrayer, the doomed prophetess.


	2. Helen

This is two of two about Greek Myth. I think I like this one better, it was easier for me to connect with I guess. Anyways this is about Helen...

* * *

I guess I bear the guilt that all men seem to attach to women, for had I not perhaps the war would not have happened. And I would not be held responsible for the Fall of Troy, and the deaths of many people who should have lived. I am Helen, most often called Helen of Troy.

It is not my fault that I am beautiful but for once I wished someone could see beyond the beauty to see that inside I am still a young girl, terrified of my own shadow. Terrified of all the trouble I have brought to all who knew me.

My own brothers Castor and Polydeuces, my husband Menelaus, my lover Paris to whom I never should have been promised. I feel pity for people like Cassandra, sister of Paris, she died so far from her home land murdered by my sister, raped brutally by Ajax the Lesser and betrayed at the hands of her own twin brother.

I guess the start of my problems began when Theseus stole me away at the age of twelve. Luckily my brothers rescued me and I was returned home. I guess since then I have been known as the Fairest. I guess at that point I began flirting, pretending to be a strong woman instead of a pitiful little girl.

Once the fall of Troy came and I was reclaimed I expected nothing else but to be slain for being unfaithful at the hands of my husband. Yet for my beauty I was spared… curse the beauty that blinds men, they see not who I am!

Gods have meddled in my life too many times, Aphrodite curse her for making me love Paris and Zeus my own father who courted my mother in the guise of a swan and at my birth placed the constellation Cygnus in the skies.

I did not ask for beauty, I did not ask to be special. I didn't want innocent people brutally murdered for my return to Greece. I will never cleanse my hands of their blood, it looms over me like a death cloud. Perhaps if I had not loved Paris this would not have happened, perhaps if I had died Troy would still stand. There are too many perhaps in this question.

I have been alone for most of my life, perhaps it was merely the thought of love that seduced me away to Troy, the thought that someone could love me for something besides the beauty of a radiant face and clear eyes, of curled locks of hair.

I bear too much guilt and too much beauty with it all, Would that I were dead and mayhap this would not be my fault. Helen of Troy, Helen of Sparta, Helen the Fairest, Helen daughter of Zeus. Could I not be seen as simply Helen? As simply a woman longing to be loved for who she is not for her beauty?

I guess a doom hangs over beauty, not that I asked for it. The Trojan War was my fault and the deaths of many innocents my entire fault. Perhaps you have seen the Helen that people don't associate me with? You have seen the kind heart, beyond the beauty that makes men weak and women jealous.

I am Helen, merely Helen. If only the world could see beyond the beauty and not be blind. They would see Helen, Helen who simply longs to be loved.


End file.
